by
Damien F. Mackey
“Reference is also made to Deper (
Yohanan Aharoni
The
geographical situation of the town of “Shalem” as depicted in Ramses II’s
eighth year reliefs might suggest that it was situated too far north for it to
be identifiable with the capital city of Jerusalem.
Given
the strategic importance of “Salem” in the environs of Shechem during the
massive Assyrian invasion of Syro-Palestine, then I must reconsider my former
acceptance of the view of some that the pharaoh Ramses II, when conquering the
“city of Shalem”, was actually attacking Jerusalem itself.
Previously
we noted that “… there was
apparently a northern “Salem” in the region of Shechem (Genesis 33:18 KJV): “And Jacob came to Shalem, a
city of Shechem …” …. It is certainly
a remarkable fact … that about 4 miles East of Shechem (Nablus), there is a
village bearing the name Salem”.
That Shalem was
Jerusalem, though, is the view argued by, for instance, David Rohl in his book,
A Test of Time. The Bible: - From Myth to History (Century, London 1995).
Rohl goes even further than that, and - whilst rightly rejecting
Champollion’s old identification of the 22nd dynasty’s pharaoh
Shoshenq I with the biblical “Shishak king of Egypt”, who sacked the Temple of
Yahweh after the death of king Solomon - proceeds to identify Ramses II as
“Shishak”.
And Peter van der Veen will firmly back up Rohl on this:
VII. Did Ramesses II conquer Jerusalem?
In my view, the city of Shalem
conquered by Ramesses II in his Year 8 cannot be identified with any other city
in Palestine other than Jerusalem ('city of Shalem'). The inscription on the
north pylon of the Ramesseum probably does not list the cities in geographical
sequence but rather as highlights of the campaign. Ramesses did indeed take the
cities of Merom, Kerep, etc, but this does not mean that he could not have taken
a city in the south on his way back to Egypt or during his expedition against
Moab. ….
[End of quote]
My own view is that pharaoh Ramses II was by no means “Shishak”, but was
Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty. See e.g. my series:
including:
(iv, a): His
Campaign against Jerusalem
Yohanan Aharoni tells of Ramses
II’s reference to “Shalem” in his book, The Land of the
Bible: A Historical Geography, p. 181):
Ramses conducted additional campaigns to Canaan
in order to strengthen Egyptian authority, which had doubtless been weakened after the battle
of Kadesh. However,
details about these campaigns are
quite scanty. One of his reliefs depicts the conquest of Ashkelon, specifying that the spirit
of rebellion had penetrated even to the main centres of Egyptian power
in southern Canaan. A series of reliefs from Ramses' eighth
year describe, among others, the capture of Kerep[na] (k-r-p-[n]) in the mountain of Beth-anath,
Kanah (q-n), and Merom (m-r-m), which are probably the Beth-anath
of Naphtali, Kanah of Asher and Merom of the famous "waters of Merom"
— all of them in Upper Galilee. …. Reference is also made to Deper
(
It is clear from the geographical context that this Shalem was located in a northern region of Israel and thus likely
does not refer to Jerusalem.
